Experts have identified Female Genital Mutilation as one of the harmful health practices that cause complications for mothers during child delivery in developing countries.

Rising from a three-day Training Information Communication (TIC) workshop held in Oye-Ekiti weekend, participants were unanimous that such complications often accounted for the high maternal mortality rate on the continent.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the workshop, they urged health workers to abstain from female genital mutilation practices, while calling on governments at all levels to eradicate the habit through the media and establishment of Female Genital Mutilation Monitor Clubs in all secondary schools.

The experts observed that poor communication between parents and children accounted for the high level of child abuse in the society, while requesting that parents and teachers should serve as role models to their wards.

In his opening remarks at the commencement of the workshop, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dare Ojo, described the workshop as a collaborative intervention at ensuring efficient healthcare delivery in the state. He assured that the state government would do all in its power to promote good maternal/childhood health conditions for which the government had opened health facilities in the state.

The sensitisation campaign, organised by Inter-Africa Committee (IAC) Nigeria, in collaboration with Ekiti State Ministries of Health and Women Affairs, had traditional rulers, religious leaders, school counsellors, health workers and students, among others, in attendance.